All suffer, but the poor suffer the most. It’s heartbreaking to see our brethren and sistren with sored feet and pallid faces, walking miles to get back to their native state.
Coming from extremely backward areas, leaving their families behind, in the hope of getting a better livelihood in the fast-paced city, they are ready to live even in the squalor-filled rented ghettos. Now suddenly devoid of employment, shelter, and food they have nowhere to turn to. They do not even have access to the little that they had. The only option left is to go back to where they came from.
The government has certainly devised strategies to provide succour to the migrant workers. But we must address the underlying issue that has haunted us since times immemorial, poverty. We are almost habituated to see our people struggle to get their two square meals or children at constriction sites.
Starting from Jawaharlal Nehru in the late 1940s to Narendra Modi in present times, all leaders have talked about tackling poverty. But unfortunately, we got nothing more than mere slogans like ‘garibi hatao‘ (remove poverty) or ‘vikas’ (development). Poverty has impacted India more than coronavirus. A vaccine of the latter will hopefully be developed soon, what about the vaccine of the former?
In a country, well-governed poverty is something to be ashamed of’, thus said great Confucius. And it is even more shameful when a country whose own PM rose from poverty still struggles to eradicate it.
It is up to you and me to decide whether to drag on with a sense of oblivion or to make the issue of poverty in the centre of our discussion.
